Confirming rumors that we first reported on a couple of weeks back, Robert Downey Jr. has been formally lined up to play Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie's film of the same name. Apparently inspired by Lionel Wigram's comic book as much as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novels, Variety says that the film will begin shooting this October for a scheduled 2010 release.

While Downey Jr. has arguably been making his comeback of sorts since 2005 (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, hear hear!), it's naturally his immense success with Iron Man this past May that has opened a door this big. While I have plenty of faith in whatever direction he's about to take this character, I'm still curious about how British gangster maven Ritchie landed the project and in what direction he's about to take the story.

It's curious that we now have a Tropic Thunder star working on one such project, while that film's writer prepares to take on the Apatow-produced version starring Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen as Holmes and Watson, respectively. But in a world where we get to choose between the prospects of a Victorian-era Tony Stark and a detective prone to streaking in the nude, aren't we all a little spoiled?

Now this is a combination I would have never seen coming. Variety reports that Guy Ritchie will be helming Sherlock Holmes for Warner Bros. Yes, you heard that right. The iconic detective and his deerstalker cap are making a comeback -- and Ritchie is the man chosen to make it happen. It's nice to see him branching out ... I think.

The movie will be based not on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, which I find no end of shocking, but on the Lionel Wigram's upcoming comic book. Ritchie is currently rewriting the script, previously written by Tony Peckham. The movie is being slated for a 2010 release.

The details are being kept under tight wraps, so I can only venture a guess that it will remain in foggy Victorian England. On the other hand, Warners says they are aiming to "reinvent" Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson, and focus on making him more "adventuresome." They will focus on his skills as a boxer and swordsman -- which, again, suggests a Victorian Holmes, but plenty of modern characters find excuses to break out a blade.

Joel Silver thinks he will, and he would probably know. Silver gave a long interview with Moriarty over at AICN, where the long and torturous road of Sgt. Rock was brought up. And the answer was surprisingly optimistic: "I'm going to make that. I'm going to make that very soon. With Guy Ritchie, I think." When pressed for more details, Silver would only reply with, "I hope so."

First, does anyone else think it's crazy that DC Comics would deliver a movie about a humble soldier on-screen faster than the Green Lantern or Wonder Woman? When I think of must-see DC properties, Sgt. Rock doesn't come to mind -- but that might just be me.

And if you're unfamiliar with Sgt. Rock, Wikipedia has his long and glorious WWII history. The short answer is that he is the WW2 soldier to end all soldiers, having fought in every campaign there was. Depending on who you talk to, he either died in the war or lived on to perform covert operations for the United States.

According to the tabloid rags, Guy Ritchie has his hands full with his marriage to Madonna, but he's also been busy trying to reinvigorate his career. We've got RocknRolla on the way, the story of a Russian mobster doing shady land deals and attracting the attention of London's crime world, and it stars Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Ludacris, and Idris Elba. But before we even see if that helps rip him from the sinking world of Swept Away, Thandie tells MTV that the new film will be one of three.

The actress says: "RocknRolla is one of three films and Guy's keen to get going on that straight away." It will include Newton, who makes it through this first film, but she says many others have not, and that the sequel "will follow whoever's left." Apparently the shoot was swift, with only three weeks of pre-production, so Ritchie could get going on this at any time.

That being said, since this is a story where only some survive for the sequel, Ritchie might want to wait for 2 and 3 until after the first one premieres, to prevent potential spoilers and all. But maybe he just wants to get these in the bag before the verdict lands on the first. It could go either way, but since Tom Wilkinson has been on a hotter than hot roll lately, I'm hoping for good things. How about you?

Variety reports that Virgin Comics will partner with Jonathan Mostow for a feature film version of his just-published comic, The Megas. Based off an idea from Mostow about a group of elites, it is part of Virgin's Directors Cut line of comics. Mostow is perhaps best known as the director of Terminator 3, but he is in good company at Virgin. Other directors who have signed up include John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Ed Burns, and Terry Gilliam.

The story "revolves around Detective Jack Madison and his race-against-the-clock investigation to uncover secrets behind the mysterious sex-fueled suicide of a Prince in The Megas royal family. Meanwhile, the King is on his deathbed at The White Palace (yes, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!), and society is bracing for the inevitable chaos that will surely ensue once he dies." Basically, it seems to be about a corrupted ruling class and the everyman who is forced to bring them down.

There is no word yet on whether Mostow will be involved with writing the script, or directing it for that matter. Mostow already has a remake of The Swiss Family Robinson, and the sci-fi thriller The Surrogates, with Bruce Willis, lined up for 2009. If Virgin wants to get this production going any time soon, they might have to start looking for someone else to take over. The original model for the Director's Cut series was to create comics that were tailor-made for film adaptations, so I would assume that we are going to start to see a lot of Virgin comic book movies in the near future.

The release dates, they are a-changing! Universal just moved the release of the action flick Wanted, which stars Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, from March to June 27th, 2008. That June release date was also held by Pixar's new one, WALL-E, and the Tom Cruise "Hitler assassination plot" flick -- Valkyrie. According to Coming Soon, Valkyrie has officially budged (though I think it would have absolutely crushed Wanted and it's courting a different audience than Wall-E). United Artists will now release the film on October 3rd of 2008 -- a date also held by less intense competition -- Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Guy Ritchie's Gerald Butler drama RocknRolla.

Valkyrie is directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Nathan Alexander. Tom Cruise has become everyone's favorite punching bag lately, and reaction to the trailer, particularly Cruise's lack of a German accent, was pretty hostile. (Although probably not as hostile as it would have been had he...attempted a German accent!) But the plot sounds awesome, Singer is a great director (Superman Returns aside), and it's got a hell of a cast -- including Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Fry, Eddie lzzard, Terence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson, and Black Book's stunning Carice Van Houton. How bad could it be? It's got to be better than Wanted -- have you seen the trailer for that thing? Haven't I seen that movie, oh, a thousand times already?

Surprise! Jason Reitman's Juno, the most buzzed about teen pregnancy comedy of the fall, hauled in an overwhelming take of $60,000 per screen at seven theaters in New York and Los Angeles, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo, easily topping the indie box office chart. It got a head start by opening on Wednesday, but it actually began building momentum when it screened at Telluride more than three months ago. Critical response has been nearly unanimous (93% positive per Rotten Tomatoes), with our own Kim Voynar leading the hosannas. Juno will be opening wide soon, so it will be interesting to see if it can cross over to mainstream acceptance.

Also widely praised since its debut at Venice, Atonement scored very well with a per-screen average of $25,531 at 32 theaters in major markets. Keira Knightley and James McAvoy star in director Joe Wright's adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel. Christopher Hampton scripted the screen version of an epic period romance. Cinematical's James Rocchi participated in a roundtable interview with McAvoy; you can read McAvoy's thoughts on Atonement and much more.

Other indies struggled to find audiences. Grace is Gone, starring John Cusack as a father having trouble telling his daughters that their mother has been killed, had the highest profile, but earned just $3,500 per screen at four theaters. Long on the shelf, The Amateurs may be heading quickly to DVD; despite the presence of Jeff Bridges and Ted Danson, it managed to earn only $4,000 per screen at three theaters in Los Angeles and Dallas. Bridges did all he could to publicize the film; he and Danson participated in a junket, which our own Patrick Walsh just wrote about, and was present for a post-screening Q&A on Friday night in Dallas.

Also debuting over the weekend: Maurice Jamal's comedy Dirty Laundry ($7,700 per-screen at two theaters), Paul Schrader's Washington drama The Walker ($5,533 per screen at three theaters), Guy Ritchie's crime drama Revolver ($2,316 per screen at 18 theaters) and David Wall's religious drama Noelle ($802 per screen at 203 theaters).

Once you get mega-famous farting around with guns and people who talk funny, it's got to be tough to see your career get Swept Away in one fell swoop. Since then, Guy Ritchie has tried to go back to what he does best -- tough guys and crime. Although he's currently filming RocknRolla, his flick about London's criminal underworld, he had already returned to form a while ago with Revolver. It debuted at TIFF two years ago, and is finally hitting North American theaters in limited release this December. The delay could be due to rumors of its crappiness, although IMDb has it resting at 6.2/10, which isn't great, but isn't terrible.

Now we've got a trailer to check out, courtesy of Yahoo. While it starts off looking like this tough-guy chess movie, with dark, pouring rain and sliding chess pieces, it then jumps into typical criminal territory: the games, cons, and fun of Las Vegas. There's piles of money, bets, scantily-clad women, murder, and everything else you could imagine. Jason Statham stars, sporting lots of distracting facial hair, with the likes of Ray Liotta, Vincent Pastore, and André Benjamin. The trailer looks like your typical bright-lights crime caper, which should work well for it. That being said, I'm kind of wishing it was all about the dangerous life of chess players. That would be cool.